Hong Kong, Crossroads of the Criminal Wildlife Trade

Science | Hong Kong, Crossroads of the Criminal Wildlife Trade Sections Skip to content Skip to site index Despite reforms, the territory is a linchpin in the global traffic in illegal animal parts. A rehabilitated pangolin in a park in Vietnam. Pangolins are critically endangered, their meat a delicacy in southern China and their scales a prized ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine. Credit Credit Suzi Eszterhas/Minden Pictures Supported by ByCharles Homans Feb. 12, 2019 HONG KONG — It was after dark on a Tuesday evening in December 2017 when the vans pulled onto Island House Lane, a placid side street of residential complexes and community garden plots in the suburban Tai Po district. High-rises gave way to lush forest as the street wound down to a pebble beach. Across the harbor was Tolo Channel, On the water, a speedboat was waiting. When officers from Hong Kong’s Customs and Excise Department arrived, the boats fled out to sea. Marine officers pursued them for two hours before losing them in the channel’s warren of rocky coves and mangrove estuaries. From the vans, however, officers were able to recover part of the contraband cargo. There were about $1 million worth of mobile phones, digital cameras and tablets. And, packed into cardboard boxes, the agents discovered more than In fact, they came from pangolins: a housecat-sized, forest-dwelling mammal that resembles an armor-clad anteater. Pangolin meat is a delicacy in southern China, where it is critically endangered, and its scales are prized as an ingredient… [Read full story]